LEGISLATIVE intent may quite often be considered by the courts when interpreting statutory law; and this could very well be the case were the Parliament to pass the proposed Jamaica Teaching Council Bill in its current form.

What the Bill contemplates is certainly not captured in its text, but otherwise betrays an unsavoury intent that would readily strike a body blow to the dispute resolution mechanism in industrial relations praxis, and more significantly trespass upon an important precepts in English jurisprudence.

The object of the Bill is said to, among other things, “recognise, regulate and promote the teaching profession and maintain professional standards for educators”, as well as to “raise the character and status of the teaching profession”. I dare say, there are many other groups whose character and status would be important for the promotion of professional standards, but they are not mandated to be registered and subjected to the burdensome requirements that this Bill imposes on our teachers. Our elected officials come readily to mind; as persons performing the highest levels of public service, but whose character and status, in the minds of the public, are far less than desirable.

The promotion of the teaching profession, I believe, would inure to improvements in our educational standards, and that in itself is laudable. Any policy or legislation to advance that would therefore be more than welcome. But not so in this current Bill. For the devil does appear in the details, which would make for an unconvincing argument about improving our educational system based on its downright faulty syllogism.

Even then, teachers may find that their ‘abilities, knowledge and skills’ obtained through our tertiary institutions, including our teachers’ colleges, are not sufficient for them to practise their craft, and some ‘higher force’ will have to dictate the new standards by which they ought to be judged.

The work involving the registration, monitoring and discipline of our teachers is to be undertaken by that ‘higher force’, a body known as the Jamaica Teaching Council, which derives its absolute power and authority from the Bill, making its role and function overbearingly intrusive and smack of Hobbes’ Leviathan, except where the ‘legitimacy’ of the council would be based not on the consent of the teachers, but through the imposition of bad law.

Its powers are so far-reaching that you dare not try to teach a child at home, other than your own, lest you find yourself hauled before a court, fined and/or imprisoned, and consequently condemned as a criminal. Your only sin would have been to try and assist the Ministry of Education in ensuring that since every child can learn, then every child must learn.

One is therefore tempted to ask what mischief is the Bill intending to correct? What problems are we experiencing with ‘extra lessons’ done from home? Is the registration of teachers and the monitoring of them going to solve the deficiencies in our education system? This may be much more than counterfactual inferences being made about our teachers; rather, it may be a deep-seated perception that our teachers are seen as the summum malum of the education system.

The proposed Bill outlines nearly 50 functions to be performed by the council, many of which are quite superfluous. For example, section 9(d) specifies as one of the functions to “advise relevant bodies in Jamaica about the operation of this Act, as required or permitted under this Act”, but then section 9(i) is to do substantially that same thing, which is to “inform registered teachers and the public about the operation of this Act”.

A careful reading of the sections of the Bill, relative to the registration process and the monitoring of our teachers, reminds me of the ‘legal requirements’ that fall automatically on a person convicted or cautioned for a sexual offence. In fact, the Bill makes reference to sexual offenders and refers to the council having the responsibility “to arrange checks of the police information of registered teachers, licensed educational professionals and instructors…”

This certainly casts the teachers in a light of either being ‘a suspect’ or ‘a person of interest’, and leads one to ask if teachers have the propensity to run afoul of the law.

The discipline and enforcement function of the council is a grand waste of time; the school boards function in that regard and, guided by the Education Act and the Labour Relations Code, can effectively carry out that task.

The minister has expressed concerns about the role and function of some school boards, but the problem may very well be in the structure of appointments. That certainly is not an intractable issue that can only be fixed through the creation of a Leviathan with such frightening powers, force and complexity as set out in the council.

Of course, the Bill makes an exception to teaching without registration and licence, and that is in an early childhood institution where the principal is unable to find an appropriate registered or licensed teacher to fill the position. But not even in those circumstances can the principal or the school board exercise some judgement in the employment. No, it is to the council of wise men and women â the ‘philosopher kings’ on whom we shall rely to build that ‘ideal polis’ of our education system since our teachers appear to be lacking in abilities, knowledge and skills.

Here is another offensive clause, for if you are to appear before the board for matters relating to discipline, the Bill says you may be accompanied by an attorney-at-law. I am not sure if it would exclude any other person who the accused party may wish to represent them, including their union officer.

But the attorney cannot speak on behalf of his/her client unless he or she receives the permission of the board. Are we for real!

Then you have to ask yourself why, under Section IV regarding ‘restriction on teaching without registration and valid licence’, at the end of each clause the penalties of $300,000 or a term of three months’ imprisonment must be spelt out? This is certainly not the case with other pieces of legislation.

Other sections relating to the suspension of teachers seem to be predicated on an assumption of guilt and the teacher has to show cause as to why he or she should not be suspended. It is dangerous and should not ever be entertained.

I dare say that the commingling of the registration and the discipline has smeared the Bill itself to the point where I care not to separate them, but would certainly want to give vent to the idiomatic expression of ‘throwing out the baby with the bathwater’.

Moreover, the Jamaica Teaching Council is made up of a majority of persons who are not part of the teaching profession. In other jurisdictions this is not the case. New Zealand and the United Kingdom, for example, do have councils where the majority of its members are drawn from registered teachers, professional teaching organisations, or trade unions and other teaching-related organisations.

The paid officials of the council seem to fall outside of the restriction of wage freeze imposed under the IMF agreement and set out in the recently signed MOU between public sector unions and the Ministry of Finance, Planning and the Public Service. For what else could explain why the Act contemplates them earning salaries “in excess of the prescribed rate” once there is prior approval from the minister with responsibility for the public service.

In the proposed Bill there is no reward or honour to our teachers, only the infliction of punishment and ignominy, where their hands are to be tied ‘from rapine and revenge’. I do hope the teachers will not surrender their rights and freedom to a council that is predisposed to seeing them in a most unfavourable light.

The procuration of our teachers must be of paramount importance, and we must resist what Edmund Burke refers to as ‘bad laws’, for indeed they are the worst form of tyranny.

Danny Roberts is a senior lecturer and head of the Hugh Lawson Shearer Trade Union Education Institute at the Consortium for Social Development and Research, UWI Open Campus